'The second is the exegetical or neoAugustinian\r'

'Our work is a literary digest of `Beowulf` that focuses on the literary work ex momently non history of the verse. It’s deprivation to be research how the story could be suck uped as adeptism with the death of the hotshot. just right away at first we should review critical writings. Two important critical approaches shoot dominated the field in the utmost(a) thirty geezerhood. The first is the application to grey-headed English verse of the oral-formulaic theory that Milman stuff and Albert Lord developed out of their bena of contemporary South-Slavic oral rime.1 The second is the exegetical or neoAugustinian form of interpretation associated particularly with the name of D. W. Robertson in the area of gothic English literature. 2 A study reason for the popularity of the first two theories is that they see to offer structured approaches to a poesy that for m all modern-day refs pretermits whatsoever put on and familiar structure. Imagine for a second gear the naive first reactions to Beowulf of a reader hitherto accustomed scarce to modern literature (i. e. , literature in groundbreaking English, since Shakespeare).Such a reader will respond quickly and po ragively to slightly(prenominal)what of the poems descriptions of raging action; will ascend specially attractive some of the exotic melodic line of mead- manor star sign and dragon-mound; and may experience familiar emotions when version a few exceedingly melodious passages. But surely he or she will find large sections of the poem imaginatively inert — s littlemoving, redundant, didactic, often obviously opaque. Such a reader -I business leader as considerably confess that this devils root on I involve in creative presupposeer is myself at a real advance(prenominal) stage — may wonder why in the world the poet has chosen to right away his attention where he does.Why does he conceal tirelessly making the same points and presentme nt the same kindsof illustrative stories over and over, how forever spend so pitifully microscopic time on the literary things we turn out been taught to think cardinal? On characterization, for instance, with its b some others of development, complexity, slip by motivation; on richness of enlarge in the natural and physical understate; on informal, natural, and â€Å"real” interactions between quite an a little; on a broad or â€Å"rounded” or ironic view of the world the poet presents.If we judge Beowulf by novelistic homeards, it s hindquarterss us a cast of ornately svelte and stuffed (or stuffy) mannequins, always ready to restate the obvious, playing out rituals as obscure as they are strenuous. The importance of Beowulf in establishing, from a literary-critical viewpoint, the definitive epical style in Old English poetry thunder mugnot be exaggerated. Beowulf and the Waldere fragments were held to constitute ‘the only narrative poems in an old Teutonic dialect that in respect of their scale quarter be compared with the epics of other lands.3 For most readers today the epic quality of Beowulf is not in doubt. 4 Since Beowulf was obviously ‘epic, it must be an before orally dispassionate poem to which Christian colouring was later added. 5 in a flash look to a greater extent than closely at the st lop textbook of Beowulf. On create verbally pages, written (at least in this restore surviving manuscript) rough the year 1000, though probably copied from earlier versions, 6 we find a text largely composed of formulas. A concrete instance may serve to illustrate this idea of limitation. That highly conventional beast the dragon is a simple example.If a dragon, a wyrm, a draca, appears in a given passage, we clear be sure that the terms utilize to it and the actions it performs will all lie well within a small apprehend of convention. In what follows, the numbers in parentheses shew my rough total of the â€Å"formulaic” epithets and phrases employ to various aspects of the dragon in Beowulf. The count can only be approximate, since in that respect is some(prenominal) overlap downfallg. It will be storied at once that some aspects are copiously, even redundantly, exemplified and restated.Though there is ample variant within each of these tight clusters of patterns, and though this variation indeed forms a salient(ip) feature of the style (admittedly wizard our pundit reader will remove some time to appreciate), the examples of variation never range far outside a drastically restricted number of fixed bases. We faculty call these bases normal expectations. Oral poetry as we see it in Beowulf is precisely, virtually forbiddingly, the poetry of normal expectations. They appear in all its patterns.More specific terms for some of these patterns (though my use of terms will lack the rigorous clarity of definition the theorist demands) intromit the following: epithets h abitually given over to characters or objects (ece drihten ‘eternal lord or eald sweord ‘ superannuated vane, the attri exceptes riveted tight to their nouns); type-characters (the gracious mead-pouring queen Wealhtheow); traditional narrative sequences (voyages, gift-giving, fights); gnomic assertions of permanent estim equal set (swa sceal man don ‘ therefrom should a man [always] do); certain firmly symbolic objects (weapons, ships, halls, barrows); stock settings and props (benches to sit on, cups to drink from); habitual use of demarcation line to highlight and define (the pairing for centre of good Sigemund and wicked Heremod); certain recognisable emotional tones or attitudes ( bollocksing, the â€Å"elegiac” tone), with their stimulate characteristic vocabularies. Such a record is only an incomplete outline, and in any reference is deficient because it cannot show the abstruse interweaving of these separate constituents that is so fundament ally natural of the verse.Although medievalists are perfectly familiar with humdrum type-characters of the kind we find in Beowulf, much(prenominal) characters may present some problem to readers much accustomed to the subtleties of characterization in later literature. Traditional types — the venerable and pert old king, the intensely suffering woman, the hero oddly and remotely wrapped in his sacred violence, the ravening monster from hell, the â€Å" worm” young king unceremoniously sky headlong off Fortunes Wheel — these types can seem childishly simple. Exactly: they are indeed the archetypal folk characters of our fairy-tales. allow us first consider the case of Unferth, a character who has constantly been make more interesting than he au thereforetically is, obsessively rounded by the critics into more complex and pleasing shapes.If Unferth in reality is a traditional type-character in medieval literature, then variants of the basic type should he lp us find the proper category for him. or so classifications that ready been suggested would label Unferth as injustice Counsellor, or All-Licensed Fool, or Official judicature Guest-Tester, or Tolerated Coward (like Sir Kay in some Arthurian tales), or Raw Youth (like the outlandish Perceval), perhaps in need of the steerage of a seasoned warrior-mentor who will complicate his manners and heighten his endurance. Yet Unferth seems to straddle across the boundaries between these categories in a confusing way. He may be some red- alive type springy elsewhere, a combination of several types, or even no type at all but a new invention of the poet, though this last is un probably.The study stumbling block to critics, of course, has been the disparity between the fact, on the one hand, that Unferth is sh experience not only as failing the explicit test of gallantry at the meres edge (1465-71a) but as being sharply condemned by Beowulf (in the heating plant of the flyting, 5 81b-94) not only for cowardice but for having killed his own brothers, and the fact, on the other hand, that he evidently retains a place of keep an gist on at Hrothgars court and generously lends Beowulf his sword, an act for which the hero warmly thanks him. In terms of the dominant heroic values of the poem, how can Unferth olibanum show himself to be both bad and good? Unferth has important role as a spokesman for the association of Danes. Beowulfs notable tact in his concomitant parleys with the Danes he met as he do his way to Heorot seemed to be evidence for his own awareness of this potential tension.The Danes must congeal whether the Geat is nothing but a worldwide showoff and braggart, coming fordolgilpe and forwlenco, out of foolish boastfulness and pride. If he is, it would be truly humble for them to betray their own desperate need for help by treating such a heroic charlatan with respect. Thus, even if Beowulfs genuinely well-chosen words had placated some of the Danes, it is likely that not all were ready to cross the visitor. Unferths sharp challenge of Beowulf may thus dramatically fill a psychological need for the Danes as a whole. At the least, taking Unferth as the spokesman for many Danes obviates any necessity to explain why they show no disapproval of his challenge to Beowulf. Unferth does not stay around in the hall long enough to be killed by Grendel.But seeing him as one of these boasters over the ale-cup would explain later references to Unferth as a braggart. We should remember that we do not ever hear Unferth bragging, though the poet tells us (499-505) that Unferth dislikes auditory modality any warrior praised as being any better than he is, an attitude unvarying with being a braggart. But his only speech, the challenge to Beowulf, is no brag. There Unferth makes the be say that it is Beowulf who is an empty braggart with a low heroic credit rating, whereas Breca, Beowulfs competitor in the swimming-race, is not. La ter, when Unferth gives the sword Hrunting to Beowulf to use in the mere-fight, the poet tells us that the Dane does not remember what he had give tongue to when he was drunk (1465-68a).What must be referred to here is not the origin of his approach shot on Beowulf which we witnessed but some boast we never actually heard (but can infer from Hrothgars description just quoted), since the poets input signal is immediately followed by the statement that Unferth himself did not dare to risk his own intent in the mere. This is not a very distinctive failure. Neither did any other Dane. In this, Unferth once again seems save example. But only if he had been a conspicuous braggart in the knightly would his behavior now be considered reprehensible or even noteworthy. That the poet sees Unferth as representative Dane may, however, find some additional plunk for elsewhere. It should be noted that Beowulf himself takes Unferths attack on him to be a Danish attack, one that requires a counterattack as much against the whole nation as against Unferth individually.In his response (starting at 581b) he begins by addressing Unferth quite personally indeed, pointing out that, while he socks evidence that Unferth has killed his own brothers (a serious kill of fratricide later validated by the poet, 1167-68), and perhaps by treachery, if the phrase peah pin wit duge ‘though your wit is keen (589) implies some clever plotting, there is even more sensational evidence, twelve whole years of it, that Unferth has not been giving Grendel any disturb whatsoever. But Beowulf then moves on at once to broaden the charge to include all Danes. Eower leode (596) is a plural really addressed over Unferths head to the listen Danes, and it is followed by the plural terms Sigescyldinga, leode Deniga, Gardenum.None of these people, though they may not be brother-slayers, have ever given Grendel any energize up either. It will take a Geat to do that. Unferth is then a symbo l of case rather than merely private inadequacy. The resolution lines of Beowulfs reply modulate out of hoax and into reassurance. Here Unferth may well stand for the Everydane who, the hero promises, will be able to go happy and safe to his forenoon mead in Heorot next day, after Grendel has been interpreted out of the way. But before we speak further of comradeship, we must deal with Beowulfs destroy assertion that Unferth will be goddam for killing his brothers. The re hold in is made in the context of a Germanic flyting or word-battle.Unferths challenge follows close on a long boasting speech by Beowulf (407-55) and Hrothgars description of the failure of the Danish hall-boasters to pass away their encounters with Grendel. This combination of speeches sets up a interrogatory situation. If the Danes many boasts about defeating Grendel could never be carried out, and if Beowulfs boast about undulateing Breca in the swimming-contest could never be carried out, why then sho uld anyone expect that the heros present boast offers any promise of fulfillment? Such is the spirit of Unferths speech, but its tone is even more important. It is full of the taunting terms of hot heroic competitiveness: wunne ‘struggled; ymb sund flite ‘competed in swimming; he ? e ? t sunde oferflat ‘he beat you at swimming; h? fde mare m? gen ‘he had greater strength.All this language is couched to stir the quick anger of any high and touchy rival. Even though brother-slaying can be viewed as a grand crime, as it certainly is by Beowulf when he wants to be accusatory, it can also be mentioned rather neutrally and casually, as I think is done here. Unferths virtue of great courage or spirit is in the main clause, and he is granted amnesty for fratricide in the subordinate clause. Critics have not generally subscribeed this particular command of importance, but I see no reason not to take this passage as straightforward and without any cutting irony, even though the poet himself may be more critical of Unferths murderous gone than the Danes seem to be.But this does not mean that the text here contains a patronizing allusion to the Danes despicable and inexplicable blindness to Unferths real and smelly nature; it merely shows that they are not presently engaged in a flyting with him. A flyting would be the appropriate occasion to dredge up and bring out such bits of past scandal, but the epoch of a flyting is limited and time-bound. Yet, though Unferth is good beaten in the flyting and proved to be inferior to Beowulf in heroic achievement, he does not seem to be especially humiliated in this scene, partially because the poets eye is, as always, on Beowulfs greatness and partly because Unferth as a Dane must accept the evidence that only a nearsupernatural hero could have made any mark on Grendel.The Danes would much rather have saved their own great hall themselves but plainly they could not. So now they cheerfully set to w ork restoring Heorot to order (991 ff. ), and, though nothing is said about it, one would not be tout ensemble surprised to hear that Unferth was turning to and join in the task. If then we see the telephone line between Unferth and Beowulf as coming to a full stop here, it seems most unbelievable that Unferths later loan of a sword to Beowulf for the fight with Grendels mother is to be construed as a reopening of hostilities, or as a malicious act reflecting ill-feeling and resentment. It has been surmised that Unferth might know Hrunting to be a defective weapon. 7\r\n'